Pleasures of the Wing
by Inkfamy
Summary: To fly. Humans dream of it, try to achieve it, but only a few beings have truly mastered its splendor. Tired of being cooped up in the Autobot base, Jet Fire takes to the skies in an attempt to feel a small amount of freedom. Cybertron - oneshot


**Author's Note: For anyone who might have read anything by me before or might care, my penname used to be "RedEyesDarknessDragon Lady". I don't think I've submitted anything since the change.**

**This story can be considered a companion-fic for "Left Behind" - my previous story about TF: Cybertron's Jet Fire. It can also be taken as a stand alone fic though, so don't rush off the read Left Behind first because you think it will make this story make more sense. It might help a little, but I doubt it will really, though feel free to read/review any of my other stories. Reviews on this story would also be nice. There are some notes at the end about some of the content, but they're not very important.  
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**To all those who have me on their watchlist - I'm sorry I've been totally inactive for so long. I'll try to start bringing up some new stories, and this will be the first in line. **

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The traditional disclaimer: **Transformers are property of Thingy, and I do not own or have any rights to them.

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Summary: **To fly. Humans dream of it, try to achieve it, but only a few beings have truly mastered its splendor. Tired of being cooped up in the Autobot base, Jet Fire takes to the skies in an attempt to feel a small amount of freedom.

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**Pleasures of the Wing**

The wind felt good. That was the first thing Jet Fire noticed - the soothing caress of the air over his wings and chassis. Every panel on his body, every millimetre of wiring, every tiny, little, insignificant nut and bolt was built for this - to fly.

His circuits responded to the slightest change in air pressure, temperature and wind-speed instantly; flicking out panels to steadily his flight, controlling the flow of power to certain places and redirecting it elsewhere where it was needed. He was the ultimate in efficient air travel. Light, strong metal was what he was made of. Though that was occasionally a problem in battle, as he was not particularly difficult for a strong Decepticon to pick up, there was nothing to unnecessarily weigh him down. His engines recycled any fuel that was not correctly burned first time. Nothing like the dirty jets and air buses the humans had built. Next to him, they were nothing but rusted old buckets. Human equipment couldn't even detect him as he baffled their primitive radars with his superior stealth technology. The only way he could possibly have been discovered in their skies was if they'd physically flown up to him and taken a good, long look.

Though... despite the joy of freedom, Jet Fire knew he shouldn't be here. Deep inside his spark, the tiny voice of obedience was calling out to him, telling him to return to the base where he belonged and watch over the stupid little flashing lights on the panels of the main computer system. Deeper, though, the voice of rebellion howled with elation. The demon which sat on the mech's shoulder had coaxed him into taking this one pleasure; to leave his given post just once while the rest of the team were out doing what they always did and spend just thirty minutes fulfilling his purpose.

His vision, built like that of an Earth hawk, allowed him to binocular over the land below him. He could see humans walking through the trees, leaves rustling in the wind, movement in the houses of towns. But there was more than that. At will he could choose to look through any one of the three visual filters built into his system - visible light, infrared or x-ray. His scanners could pick up any radio wave the humans could throw into the air. Jet fire could see anything, anyone and know everything going on below and around him.

He performed a roll in the air, followed by a loop-the-loop, enjoying the dizzying feeling of his GPS temporarily going haywire as it tried to triangulate his exact speed, compass direction and height over sea level. On a calm day like today and at this height he could almost see the point on the horizon where the land gave way to water, and the water fell over the edge of the world. Jet Fire knew that, at will, he could catch that horizon, leaving the people and the trees and the houses below with nothing but a shattering sonic boom as he flashed away. Temptation gripped him briefly, but he overrode it. That would be too far. That could possibly get him caught. And... And supposing something did happen to the base? Supposing the Decepticons _did_ breach the Autobots' defences and make it inside? Colby, Lori and Bud... They would be kidnapped, injured... even killed. And Jet Fire would be too far away to help them. He'd be too far away to even know about an attack on the base. The fear of a sudden attack was what kept Jet Fire above the base, not hundreds of miles away. Also, Optimus would be suspicious with Jet Fire's sudden need for more fuel after sitting at the base doing nothing all day. No, catching the horizon would have to wait.

Jet Fire's ecstasy momentarily dipped as he realised this. The idea that he may never get a chance to capture the edge of the world was crushing. He knew that as long as Megatron lived, the horizon was out of his reach, and that made his hatred of the Decepticon leader grow all the more. Not only had the mech had a hand in the downfall of Cybertron, not only had he killed countless numbers of Jet Fire's comrades, not only would he never stop until all that opposed him were dead... Megatron also stood in the way of Jet Fire's dream. The Autobot knew Megatron would just keep coming back - an evil boomerang returning to wound its thrower. Rage, so hot that he felt it might melt his wiring, swept over Jet Fire. Megatron had crushed thousands of dreams for humans and Transformers alike. He did not deserve the honourable mercy Optimus Prime continuously bestowed upon him.

Though the internal rage blinded Jet Fire, somehow, a minuscule noise managed to cut through. His radars pinged quietly, indicating he was not alone in the skies. Whatever it was that has joined him, it was small, tiny in comparison to him. It posed no threat. However, Jet Fire was curious. His companion was gaining height quite fast - looping in a lazy upward spiral. It was no mechanical being, however, nor was it a human-manufactured machine. Gracefully the mech arched round in the sky, bringing himself to look upon the newcomer.

A red-tailed hawk had found a large thermal - on such a magnificent day like today that was of no surprise to Jet Fire - and it climbed into the sky on an escalator of hot air, barely having to flap its wings. Jet Fire could see that the hawk was not flying in any particular pursuit of food, it was merely taking pleasure in the joy of flight. The Autobot held a certain amount of respect for the hawks. They were powerful and robust predators, and he had an automatic feeling of kinship for anything that was built to fly. As one professional to another, he understood the glory of taking to the skies and almost pitied humans, who despite their greatest efforts would never truly experience its wonder.

Jet Fire was careful not to go too close to the bird, for fear of scaring it away and ruining its flight, or even worse - accidentally sucking it into his engines. But together Transformer and hawk climbed into the blue of the sky. Too soon, Jet Fire knew, he would have to return to the confines of the Autobots' base. Back to his bird cage. But that could wait, just another five minutes. His vision strayed back to the horizon. _One day, he'd capture the edge of Earth. One day._

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**Author's Notes: Well, I hope you enjoyed. Please give me some feedback, especially if you can tell me any points of improvement. I will answer all reviews within a few days of submission. And now to the content notes -**

**Concerning red-tails: **Annoyingly, I'm not 100 percent sure that red-tailed hawks _do_ fly up to great heighs. As soon as I can speak to my resident bird of prey expert I will verify what I've said, and if I'm wrong I'll change the content so it's right.

**Concerning the horizon: **I have to admit that a little of the inspiration for Jet Fire's lust for the horizon comes from the last scene of one of the _Pirates of the Caribbean _movies, where Cpt. Jack says "Bring me that horizon." But only a very tiny amount.

**Concerning Jet Fire's name: **While writing I couldn't decide or remember if Jet Fire is actually spelled Jet Fire or if it's Jetfire. I went for Jet Fire in this fic, but if that's wrong then let me know and I'll remember that for my next one.

**Concerning any OOCness: **I'm very sorry if there _is _any OOC in the story. My excuse is that I haven't seen anything to do with TF: Cybertron for over a year now and I can't remember it particularly well. Please also try to remember that I've tried to portray a slightly darker side of Jet Fire at some points, though it might not have worked very well.

**Thank you for taking the time to read, and please take some time to review too :)**


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